Review: Injustice: Console DC superhero smash!

Ok, we’ll be honest, we are a tad more into DC rather than the Marvel world. Maybe it’s because we know the story of the Justice League a little better than that of The Avengers, or maybe it’s the badass games starring DC and WB characters. NetherRealm has answered the call for the honor to bring the Mortal Kombat to the public and they’ve been doing a really good job at it. Now, they’ll pick up the mantle and try their luck with DC – to wipe the slate clean after the tragedy called Mortal Kombat Vs. DC.

DESIGN: 7.5/10

The moment you start to play, you’ll notice something very familiar. It feels almost exactly like Mortal Kombat, but a tad different. The great thing right off the bat is the selection of characters. There is a lot of them and we love it! The cast of characters from Superman to Nightwing is great. They even have the cool villains like Doomsday involved. All characters have their own flavor in terms of how they interact with the world around them.Where Superman would smash, Batman would use it to swing and use his technical art to destroy opponents. Stages range from favorite and memorable DC locals such as Gotham City to Metropolis, and each stage comes with a lot of cool destructible environments which we’ll discuss in the Fun Factor part of the review.

Tutorials are easy to get into because they reach into an area where a lot of games tend to ignore: The Basics. The game does its best teaching you the basics so you can dish out spectacular combos and astonishing special attacks against your opponents. We wish there were more to the tutorials, but honestly – they work well enough where we understood how certain functions work with certain heroes and villains. You also get the Challenge feature where you get to test your skill with even harder combinations tailored to your character.

Multiplayer is extremely fun as well, the fact that you can watch other people play as you wait is a great bonus, aside from that, there is your usual rank matches, versus traditional matches etc. The biggest hook of the game is the amount of unlockables found in the game – alternate costumes, artwork, and other extras keep pulling you back in for more.

The story of the game is…well, iffy. It tries to be serious when you are left thinking of how something like this happened and a lot of “really? that’s it?” reactions come up as the story progresses in this deep ridiculousness of a ride.

FUN FACTOR: 8.0/10

Now, this is the fun part of the game: the fact that you can use the environment is like eye-candy to us. The use of objects is a must if you want to survive, but you can turn it off if you think it’s too much (wussies). Character have their own fighting styles, and even though the controls for characters are similar, at the same time it feels different. Stage transitions are freakin’ awesome, launching an opponent off screen and watching them get hit by a train or a plane delivers an awesome thrill of destruction. The only issue we have is the character balancing, and yes – there are characters who are a little OP in terms of damage output and use of stage items. Where Deathstroke uses a certain objects as a spring board, a strong or brute character like Superman would use it to smash an opponent making the object unusable and creating a disadvantage for characters like Catwoman and Batman. As a result, the beginning of a fight you would find yourself smashing as many objects as you can to hinder your opponents’ abilities.

There are also other strategic ways to win a game, clashes are a good example of this. It’s kind of hard to explain, but let’s just say that the more you save up your ability bar, the more it will help you, plus the cinematic show of two characters running toward each other and creating an explosion is a real treat. Special abilities also help out your character of choice, whether it is to heal or to cause more damage, can change up your chances of winning. Then there are the Super attacks – cinematic and epic to watch – you’ll feel it all, as heroes and villains dish out their best against an unsuspecting opponent.

Replayability comes in the form of unlockables and as we mentioned, there are tons of them.
In addition, you can also unlock items by playing the mobile version with your iOS device and it’s free!

Presentation: 8.5/10

Make no mistake, this game looks great and it’s all about the characters! As much as we love the levels and locations, the fact that each character is brought to life in terms of how they are played and the actions they take is always a plus when addressing a comic book character. We can tell that there are fans inside NetherRealm studios, since characters seem to be on point in terms of their special abilities, combos, and look. Sound comes and goes with cheesy intros and outros, but the biggest thing are the voice-overs. They’re a hit-and-miss in the game, but not a “miss” to the point where we would nerd-rage about them.

Overall 8.0/10

We loved the concept of Injustice and we had a lot of fun pitting our favorite characters form the DC universe against each other. Multiplayer is a plus when fighting people online, and even though you’re waiting for your opponent, you get to watch the carnage. The numerous characters are a very welcome addition, with every single hero and villain harboring their personalities behind their movements and actions. Special attacks are great to watch, destructible environments bring a new strategic gameplay, and watching the transition between stages helps you stay aware of your environment in fights. Overall, we enjoyed kicking some DC ass, but the lame and iffy storyline with the simplified controls creates an atmosphere of tedium, though if you try to dive a little further, you’ll find a very solid fighter.